Perceptions
by trexreaching
Summary: Tommy doesn't do birthdays but can a delectable Italian and a cupcake change his mind? (Set after season 2 episode 8 before the end of season.) (Rates and reviews welcome (Constructive criticism too))
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 - Tommy**

'Happy Birthday'

What did that even mean? Congratulations on getting older? Congratulations on not dying? On not letting your father drag you down some twisted revenge fuelled tirade with him? Congratulations on another year disappointing everyone you ever cared about by doing the right thing? And it was the right thing wasn't it? His father was so deep in denial it was making him delusional and his brother was so full of anger he couldn't think straight. Both of them so full of hate for everyone around them and for him that they had no idea the ways in which he protected them. The lying he did to keep their shit off of the ICC radar wasn't easy. The bank job was more luck than skill and Hickman hadn't forgotten it he could see it in the way he looked at him every time his family came up in conversation, which was surprisingly often. You could take the boy from the camp but you couldn't take the camp from the boy. Maybe it was desperation or frustration or stupidity but whatever it was that pushed them they'd antagonised Lennon and he was a man as determined to see their eradication as they were to see his. Two bulls running straight for one another and who did they think was going to have to pick up the pieces? Tommy of course. He'd deliver the bad news to his mother and his sister in law and they'd spit on him and curse him out like it was his fault. Like they hadn't seen any of this coming. Tommy bent the fork in his hand.

Eva's cupcake sat innocently on the plate unaware of the tumult of thoughts circling his brain tying his stomach in knots. Even this cake came with emotional baggage though Eva would object.  
"It's fine," she'd assure him with her lips "it's just a cake." But her eyes would dip for a second in disappointment.  
"Just a cake my arse." Tommy grumbled. He leant against the counter staring down at the cake. It was supposed to be a cupcake but it looked more like the love child of a cake and a bloated muffin. There was nothing cup about it. Bowl cake, maybe. Perhaps he should just enjoy it while he could. This was likely his last year on earth especially if he was forced to head back to London any time soon. The bounty on his head had been a surprise but not as surprising as the hurt Tommy felt when he found out. He wasn't a child any more, he didn't harbour any illusions that he was going to be able to walk back to his family and have all forgiven but it was one thing to know your family hated you, it was another to know that the man he'd once idolised wanted him dead. There was no coming back from the grave. He'd been a dead man before and he was going to be doubly dead now because he'd been forced to commit the cardinal sin of informing on his family. He stuck the fork into the cake. He was angry. So angry that he was once again robbed of choice. Between a rock and a hard place, that's where he lived now. His father thought he got his softness from his mother but asking him to permanently alienate himself, to put himself in danger from them, for them was coldness disguised as caring. If his father thought she still wished for his safe return he could think again. She asked him to sacrifice himself for them knowing he'd never be able to refuse because even if they didn't love him he loved them. He closed his eyes feeling so tired now. So tired of all the shit he couldn't control or change. He was tired of being forced to confront the mess that was his past but never being able to untangle it and find some closure. Why couldn't life be a tv show or a book where every bad thing eventually lead to a happy ending. Hell he didn't even need a happy ending just an ending of some kind, a way to securely close the door on his past.

Happy birthday indeed. Welcome to another year of carrying the McConnel tragedies on your shoulders.

Tommy scooped some cake up and shoved it in his mouth. It tasted good. He didn't know Eva could bake. Despite the twisting inside of him he found a smile.

There was a thud then rhythmic clicks across the floor.  
As if summoned by thought alone Eva appeared in the doorway.

"What are you still doing here?" she spoke impeccable English but the accent laced every word. His language sounded romantic coming out of her mouth.

Tommy swallowed and tilted the cake plate. The smile turned sheepish "Eating birthday cake."

Eva gave him a long look "I thought you didn't do birthdays?" She replied teasingly.

"I don't but you made this cake for me and Sebastian and Arabela told me that it was rude of me not to." Eva frowned at him "I appreciate the cake." he took another bite to prove it.

"That's okay." She replied uncertainly.

"I didn't mean to offend you or hurt your feelings by not eating it." he concluded.

As he expected she shrugged and said "It's fine, it's just a cake." her frown smoothed out and a gentle smile played on her full lips.  
Tommy's eyes dipped to her mouth. He didn't know when it had started but his eyes looked at her lips a lot. When she talked, when she didn't, when she chewed the end of her pen, when she chewed on her lip or pursed them, _especially_ when she pursed them. He hadn't worried about it before. She was an attractive Italian woman, he was a red blooded Irish male it was basic human instinct. But for some reason standing in this kitchen just the two of them a strange trepidation over took him.

"I didn't know you could cook."

Eva smiled coyly. Tommy watched her lips. "I'm Italian it's a required skill even for the daughter of a gangster." She joked.  
He envied the ease of her joking. Tommy made smart arse remarks about his life all the time but they always sounded as bitter as he felt. When Eva joked it sounded like she was at peace with it, like she was saying 'here is something I was part of but I'm not in it anymore so I can make a joke'. Maybe he needed to take a leaf out of her book and just lighten up. He was 30 now after all perhaps it was time to act less like an angry teenager and more like an adult ICC officer.

"I had heard something to that effect." He grinned. "Do you want some?" He proffered the fork with a bit of cake on it.

"No you finish it, it is your birthday after all."

"Well not any more it's not. And to be honest if this is what birthdays are like I'd rather not in future."

Eva stepped into the kitchen and leant against the fridge "Why do you hate your birthday so much?"

Tommy looked down his gaze fixed on her shiny heeled boots. "I spent much of the afternoon locked in a cell with my da where he kicked the shite out of me. I may be Irish but that's not my idea of a party...at least not any more."

"Today was extreme," she agreed with a soft musical laugh.

"Besides around my house a birthday just meant you were one year closer to be tried as an adult for any and all offences they wanted to pin on you."

Eva had a kind empathetic heart. Best of all she wasn't shy about it. Her capacity for sympathy astounded Tommy. Instead of criminals or victims worth pity she saw people to try and understand. Sure she didn't always succeed but she found worth in trying. It was because of this soft heart forever reaching out to others that Eva's smile turned pitying. Tommy instantly loathed it. "Ah don't look at me like that," he strove to keep his tone easy, "I might not be little Tommy McConnel anymore but the whole birthday celebration thing, I just never got into it."

Eva cocked her head to the side, "That's a shame." Tommy shrugged. It was how it was. "I like birthdays."

"Oh yeah?" Tommy shoved another bit of cake in his mouth.

"Yeah. Presents and cards for one, but then plans with friends. Going out and partying."

Eva in a flirty little dress and stiletto heels made for teetering. Tommy had a hard time picturing it, and then he did, and then he wished he hadn't because it was inappropriate to imagine the bare legs of your colleague.

"You? Party? I'd never have guessed it."

She gave him a sassy look, her lips pursed and a single brow raised in daring. "I can party."

Tommy locked eyes with her. "You'll have to show me that some time." his words were loaded.

Eva blushed diverting hers to the ground. So she felt it too huh? Tommy latched onto that. Her lashes were long and dark fanning out against the pink of her cheeks. "Maybe I will." she mumbled into the floor.

Tommy put the plate down on the side half the cake still crumbling. It was good but it was too much sugar all in one go.

In a smaller voice Eva asked "Why does Lennon hate you so much?"

Tommy sighed his smile fading, the heat of potential passions cooling. Lennon. There was another reason to stay away from home, a voluntary reason not that it made him feel any better than his banishment from a home he hadn't known in decades but would never know now so long as he lived. Tommy tried not to feel fear or at least he tried to redirect it into something more active but when he thought about how alone he was now he felt an ice cold slice of terror spear him through the middle freezing every cell inside of his body. Panic gripped his heart forcing it into overdrive. He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly.

"Because I'm Irish." he replied when he thought his voice wouldn't waver.

She gave him a skeptical look, "Is that it?"

"The Irish and the English have a complicated history."

"Because of the IRA?"

Tommy nodded. "He thinks my kind are terrorists."

"Your kind?"

"Irish travellers." Tinkers, Pikeys, Travellers. All words used to conveniently villainize a group of people who otherwise did not deserve it. Lennon was dogged in his vehement hate for the McConnels and all those he deemed like them - which was every Irish settler in and around the London borough. Hell maybe even every Irish person.

"You are not a traveller though." she replied thoughtfully.

Wasn't he? He'd grown up with them hearing his da's voice in his head, getting into trouble with his brothers. Was he truly so unlike them just because he'd chosen to take his restless spirit and make it legit? He shrugged, "I am and I'm not. It depends on who you ask."

Eva blinked at him that thoughtful expression in her big eyes. Beautiful eyes. Tommy forced himself to behave. He'd been too long without a bed partner that's all this was. Human urges getting in the way of sense. "I don't think you are like them."

"Don't you?" he hadn't meant to snap but by the look on her face his tone had been as sour as he thought. "Sorry it's been a long day."

Eva pushed off the fridge and walked away. She paused at the door, "You coming?"

Tommy frowned, "Where?"

She smiled innocently but there was mischief in her eyes, "For a drink."

He stepped away from the counter, "Normally I would love to but I think I'm going to go home." Home. That was a joke. He had a barely furnished apartment not a home.

"I'm talking about here." Tommy raised a single brow in question. She beckoned him to follow.

The desks were all quiet now, empty and tidy. The place didn't lack personality, there were knick knacks on everyone's desk, forgotten pencils, notebooks askew and one of Sebastian's mascots but everyone was neat. There were no left over case files spilling across keyboards abandoned by someone keen to get out at five on the dot. There were no perp photo's still stuck up on the whiteboard, there was no white board. This was what a base of operations looked like when the majority of your work required you to be in the field in a different country. Tommy didn't feel one way or t'other about it until now. Now it seemed eerie. They were alone but the whole place resembled the arches at Kings Cross station, handy for people to hide behind. He was being paranoid there was nothing to spy on him for. He was just following Eva, they were just talking not exchanging innuendos, or touching, or kissing. _Kissing._

Eva stopped at her desk and sat down. Tommy mirrored her craning his head to see what she was searching for. With a flourish she pulled out a bottle of vodka.

"Vodka? I had you more as a wine girl." he laughed.

"What because I am Italian?" she asked sashaying to the kitchen to fetch a pair of glasses. Tommy watched her like a hawk but with none of the cold calculating feeling. He watched her with heat. An unfamiliar, not entirely unwelcome but entirely unadvisable heat. She poured two shots before sitting down. "Bottoms up." she knocked his glass and chucked the shot back.

Tommy grinned at her doing the same. "Surprises surprises Vittoria."

"I like to keep you on your toes McConnel."

"If we do shots all night it won't be my toes you'll have me on."

Eva blushed again but it could have just been the alcohol. "Why does everything you say sound dirty?"

Tommy rolled his chair towards her. His knees knocked into the side of her legs but he didn't move back, his elbow came to rest next to her hand, his level with the crook of her arm. If he moved just a fraction he could grab her arm and bring those watchable lips to his. They'd become kissable lips then. He looked down at them, they were wet where she'd licked them nervously. "It's your mind making it dirty," he repeated in a low voice, "it's the way you think about me."

Eva stared hard into her glass. "You wish." she whispered.

"Maybe." He'd said it before he could stop himself, before he could think better of it. It wasn't even the alcohol, one shot was hardly enough to fell him. Maybe it was fatigue or the empty room and the way they sat in it so close creating a cocoon around them of easy camaraderie and her unspoken understanding of him in this moment. Eva was not without a sense of humour but on a case she had unwavering concentration. She was always determined to do her best to get the bad guy before they got someone else. Her zest for justice was as passionate as his zest for trouble had been. He didn't often get to see Eva playing. He wanted to.

"Tommy." she breathed.

"I know," he replied ruefully, "I'm just playing."

"No it's not-"

"I know," his voice was softer and close this time. "It's a bad idea." but he didn't move back, instead he moved forward just enough to make her gasp.

"We have to work together." she tried to tell him firmly but her voice wavered, just a little but enough to tell him that there was doubt inside of her. Doubt sounded pretty goddamn good right about now. They needed more doubt. His eyes darted to her lips. She wetted them nervously again.

"I know." he sighed, "But you're a beautiful woman."

Eva's head snapped back her expression sharpening. Tommy blinked feeling the chill of the metaphorical ice cold water that had suddenly been dumped over them. "Is that what you think of me?"

Tommy hesitated "That you're a beautiful woman?" he asked confused.

He didn't understand why she looked so upset suddenly.

"Is that all you think of me?"

"What are you talking about? You're fucking beautiful Eva." She cringed at the curse. "Sorry."

"I should go." she capped the bottle and opened the drawer.

"Wait Eva-" Tommy grabbed her arm to stay her.

"I am not a silly little woman McConnel you can't just charm your way into my underwear." she wrested her arm back and shut the door with a smack.

Tommy let out an astounded little laugh as he watched her stand up and take her glass back into the kitchen. "Eva!" he called getting up and striding after her. "I know I can't," he dropped his voice even though they were alone, "charm my way into your knickers." She slammed the glass down into the sink in response. "Eva come on," he begged, "why are you pissed?"

"I am not pissed," she hissed turning to him, her big eyes full of something that looked like struggle and her mouth pursed into a straight lickable line. "I am embarrassed."

Tommy paused, "Why are you embarrassed?"

"Because you think me just another pretty face."

"Thinking you're attractive is a bad thing?" he repeated as bewildered as before.

"I am a police officer, a member of the ICC. I was part of the anti mafia task force back in my home country a title I worked hard to earn and I was almost in danger of-"

"Of what?" he interjected his mouth thinning his shoulders rising up, tension of an entirely different kind pulled his body together.

"Nothing forget it." she gritted with a shake of her head.

"You are confounding!" he gritted walking back to his desk to retrieve his coat. A moment later he strode past the door. "Thanks for the birthday cake!" he called slamming the door behind him.

Happy Birthday indeed.


	2. Chapter 2

Eva flopped miserably onto the soft couch. So close! She'd been so close to kissing Tommy and ruining everything. How could she have been so foolish? This was what pity did, it made you want to make out with your co-workers. And Tommy had looked pathetic - well in that stubborn, I'm not really sad I'm just internally tortured but I can handle it don't you worry, way. She saw the resentment in his eyes when her smile had betrayed the sympathy she felt for him but what was she supposed to do pretend she didn't feel for him? She knew going home had been hard for him and he was clearly cut up about it whether he wanted to admit it or not. She looked around the apartment. She needed a cat or something to commiserate with. Lacking a pet Eva turned on the tv filling the lonely living space with meaningless noise in a language second to her own. Was it an infomercial, was it a soap opera? She didn't know and she was too busy being angry at herself and Tommy to figure it out. Eva looked like she looked, she knew she couldn't change it and it had opened a lot of doors for her in the past but when it came to her work her beauty only seemed to get in the way. Sure people were nice to her and they smiled and opened doors for her but when she'd been training everyone had seen her as some Italian bombshell good for a fucking but likely not good at catching criminals unless it was a honey trap. There was also the pesky little detail of her being the daughter of a family with heavy mafia connections that had made her comrades distrustful of her. They weren't quite convinced that any connections to crime she had were gone the moment her parents hearts had stopped beating. At the ICC people took her seriously, they asked her advice and they trusted it. They didn't look at her and ask her to lure male criminals out with her looks. Sure they might not have trusted her at the beginning but she hadn't trusted them either. The team was a collection of flawed individuals there were bound to be teething problems but her looks had never been an issue.

Until now.

Until Thomas McConnel had told her she was beautiful proving once again that what was infront of people would always be what occupied them most. Did she think it would stop him from taking her seriously? She didn't know. Did she think he could accuse her of using her looks, her femininity, to get something she might otherwise not deserve? Absolutely. Everyone did. Would he think her looks got her where she currently was? He better not. She couldn't be sure and so even if she did want to kiss Tommy right on his Irish mouth she wouldn't because that would mess everything up. That would take her out of trusted co-worker into a woman who could be manipulated by her sexual and romantic feelings. If a man was no more able to be influenced by those things she didn't see why a woman would be. She knew when to be appropriate and possessing a pair of ovaries and a pretty face wouldn't stop her. Kissing Tommy was inappropriate. Her pretty face was telling her that.

Eva flopped back on the couch and closed her eyes. When she woke the tv would still be on and she'd still be annoyed.

The office was busy the next day. Paperwork might have been able to wait until morning light but now the sun was up it called out to them like a terrible ghost.

"Complete me," Sebastian moaned theatrically. Arabela laughed.

Eva grinned behind her desk quietly typing out her report. Her emails were numerous and all claiming to be urgent but she couldn't concentrate on more than one thing at a time because there was something huge fighting for her attention. Tommy. He was sitting at his desk grinning at Sebastian and Arabela's carrying on acting like last night had never happened. Either he was being professional pretending that he'd never come on to her and that she'd responded or he had forgotten all about it. She didn't know which she would have preferred. Being office gossip was the last thing she wanted but she didn't want to think it had been a blanket pass, although she hated to admit it even silently to herself she had hoped that Tommy's advance had been dependant on a specific person. The specific person being her. She looked over at Tommy but he was looking at Sebastian, still laughing at something Eva had been too busy obsessing over the Irishman to hear.

It was pathetic. What did it matter. Yesterday was yesterday and today was today, there was a whole ten hours between then and now. Ten hours was ample time to forget and move and it was time she did it.

"I'm going to grab some brunch does anyone want anything?"

Sebastian looked up "I would love to say yes but I'm watching my figure."

"Aye Sebastian's trying to fight off the inevitable Dad bod." Tommy grinned teasingly. He looked very good doing it. Eva scolded herself for noticing.

"Dad bod?" Sebastian frowned at him.

"Yeah it's what happens when you become a dad. You work too much and you're having too much fun to work out so you get kind of soft and pudgy around the middle." He grinned and ducked the soft mascot Sebastian threw at his head.

"One day it will happen to you." Arabela said knowingly.

"Nah not me," Tommy replied confidently leaning back in his chair and lacing his fingers over his firm stomach, "I still care what I look like. The ladies like a toned physique." his eyes snapped straight to Eva's making her start and blink in surprise. There was a tick to his smile almost as if he knew what she had been thinking earlier.

Tilting her chin up and looking down her nose at him she quipped, "Or at least they would if you had any ladies."

Sebastian and Arabela guffawed at Tommy's loss of composure. "You wound me." he put his hand on his heart affecting pain.

Eva grabbed turned to grab her coat. "If no one wants anything..."

"I'll come." her unfiltered surprise must have shown on her face because Tommy's grin grew goading.

If she refused it would look weird. If she let him go with her it would be weird. ' _So much for getting over it Eva'_ she thought to herself adding in a mental eye roll and a reminder to kick her own ass later.

To Tommy's credit he waited until they were outside the building before he mentioned the one thing she was both dreading and hoping to talk about.

"So about last night."

"We don't have to talk about it." she strode down the road suddenly in a hurry to be done with this ruse of an errand. She wasn't even hungry.

"I think we do."

"No, really Tommy we don't."

"Come on Eva," Tommy stopped. Eva took four more steps before she too stopped and turned back, "I made a pass at ya and I shouldn't have. For that I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

Hopes dashed. Eva scowled at him unable to school herself before she did it. Tommy scowled back but it looked more like confusion than frustration which she could understand because she supposed this was confusing. In any normal situation this would have been how you handled an incident like this. But this didn't feel like a normal situation because Eva was okay with Tommy making a pass at her, what she wasn't okay with was his reasons for doing it. Because she was pretty. But then isn't that why you made a pass at anyone you didn't really know? Then again Tommy did know her, they'd been working together for nearly two years, that was a long time in a job like this where everything happened at super speed. Especially when their job forced them to confront so many emotions, other peoples and their own. This was why she couldn't explain to Tommy the scowl on her face because it wasn't fair to make him jump through hoops and expect him to do it while she figured out how she felt about him and herself and him and her.

"Say something will ya?"

Eve's nostrils flared as she inhaled. "It's okay. I'm sorry I lead you to believe that it was okay to make a pass at me."

Tommy's expression softened, "You didn't lead me on." he caught up with her, "I was feeling kind of emotional and you were nice to me like you're nice to everyone. I should have known better."

"Better?" she didn't know why she asked it wasn't like she thought she'd like the answer.

"Come on," he drawled, "pretty girl like you doesn't go for a guy like me."

There was that word again being used to exclude her, to excuse her some kind of perceived rudeness. Oh she hated her face! "Is that what you think? That because I'm pretty I'm stuck up?"

"What?" Tommy stuttered, "No."

She could see the patience on his face fading but she didn't care, she was running out patience too. "That I think I'm too good for you? Do you think the same about Arabela?" His hesitation was damning in her eyes. "You are unbelievable I can't believe I was so stupid." she stormed off down the road not even certain where she was going just trying to put some distance between her and the man who had no faith in her as a person. She thought she was a good person, thought that people considered her a good person. At the very least her co-workers should have known that she was a nice, kind, _good_ person but apparently Tommy hadn't gotten the memo.

"Eva!" she could hear him calling behind her but she didn't dare stop. She ducked into the first little cafe she saw. Cakes glittered under warm amber lights and the staff smiled at her politely pretending not to notice the troubled expression on her face. "Eva come on." Tommy burst through the door. The staffs manners did not extend to him. They stared at him as if he were some kind of wild animal come to ransack the place. His expression of exasperation didn't help.

"What do you want?"

She could feel Tommy behind her. Broad and solid. He smelt good. The bastard.

"I want to talk."

"From the counter." she snapped impolitely.

Tommy made a strangled sound "I didn't come for brunch I came out because I wanted to talk to you."

"Well we're here now so you might as well order something."

"We're currently fighting and yet you're still going to buy me brunch?" he asked disbelievingly.

"It'll look weird if I come back with something and you don't." she grumbled to him. "Besides I didn't say anything about paying for yours."

She heard Tommy's amused snort. "You are truly one of a kind."

"No," she replied snottily, "I am just another pretty girl." she leant forward over the counter and began to order.

Tommy caught up with her while they were waiting for their orders. They stood in awkward silence for a while both watching the out of place art deco clock on the wall tick by seconds, then minutes. Five minutes passed and neither said a word to each other. Someone slid Eva's food over the counter to her. McConnel retrieved a styrofoam cup and nothing else.

"Just coffee?" she peered down into the pitch coloured liquid.

"My dutch isn't great." he snapped dumping three packets of sugar into it and then some milk.

"I would have thought you'd have taken it black."

"To go with my bastard soul? No, I take it with enough sugar to make me palatable." he replied sarcastically.

Infuriating man!

She bit her lip to prevent the situation from escalating again.

They returned to the office in silence, the air between them taut. Arabela and Sebastian both pretended not to notice.


	3. Chapter 3

Tommy was fast losing patience. He should have just let this be. He should have moved on a long time ago but what she said on the street bugged him. The office was nearly empty, Hickman had gone back to his trailer at the carnival, Sebastian was currently on a train back to his new found family and Arabela, was doing Arabela type things. A date maybe?

Eva was still typing away on her computer, occasionally her phone would chime and she'd get a little smile on her face. Tommy wanted to know who was so amusing. Her old partner? A friend? He dipped his head back sighing at the ceiling wondering when this had all started and when, more importantly, it was going to be over. It was messing with his head making him feel off kilter. Tommy hated feeling off kilter. It reminded him of living in the camp too much which reminded him of not being able to go back and that reminded him of how lonely he felt. He didn't need to be focusing on that again it was a slippery slope that ended in him drinking far too much liquor and waking up the next morning with rancid breath and a hell of a hangover. Sure he could put it away but his body was always sore about it the next morning.

Eva's phone chimed again.

"Can you turn that thing on silent I'm trying to concentrate." he exploded.

Eva scoffed like she hadn't even registered his tone "You finished your reports ages ago you're just moping about because you don't want to go home to your empty apartment." she gave him a smart little smile.

He wanted to kiss it right off of her.

Instead Tommy glared at her, "You're very perceptive." he said sarcastically.

"Not just a pretty face." she replied sourly.

"Oh come on Eva," Tommy groaned loudly, "Are we still on this?"

Uncertainty flickered across her face but it was soon erased in favour of Eva's favourite cool expression. The one she wore for the outside world. It made him feel like a casual stranger like she considered him to be nothing more than an acquaintance to her and not a man who had been partnered with her for the last year. Hell they'd gotten wrecked together how could she look at him like that?

"You want me to apologise for thinking you're beautiful?" He looked at her like she was crazy. "Are you kidding me? I am not apologising for finding you attractive. I apologise if knowing makes you uncomfortable but I'm just calling it like I see it. I would be happy to forget about it but ya can't let it go can ya?"

"Knowing doesn't make me uncomfortable," she rolled her eyes impatiently. "At least not in the way you think." she added as a considerate after thought.

Tommy leant forward "Then could you kindly explain it to me?"

"You wouldn't understand." she sighed.

"I may be a simple traveller but try me."

She glared at him, "Don't start with me McConnel you know I don't think of you the way Lennon does."

"Then please," he begged, "tell me why you're so upset."

"Because you said I was beautiful." she mumbled.

This again. God was she really that creeped out by him? He felt horrible, like a rejected pre-teen at school. This was Moira Clark at the church disco all over again. A wave of self consciousness overtook him. "This is going to end in my transfer isn't it? I didn't realise it was such a problem." it certainly hadn't seemed like a problem when she leant into him that night blushing at his words. Had he read the situation all wrong. Had her bashfulness been a result of discomfort?

"Oh Tommy stop!" she snapped. Everybody said the Italians were a passionate lot but he'd yet to see her explode, her snapping was the closest he'd ever seen her to losing her temper. It didn't however impact its effectiveness and he tried to make his recoil look more like a casual leaning back in his chair. "It is not because of that."

"Then why do you keep saying it is? I can't read your bloody mind so you're gonna have to either spell it out or get over it." he snapped.

"I find you attractive." she admitted forcing the words out through tight lips.

The announcement was like a gift box right to the face. It was nice to receive but it took him by surprise. He gaped at her "What?"

"I don't think you're beneath me, at all, I never have. In fact I am quite attracted to you." she blushed.

He rubbed the back of his neck "When I said explain this isn't exactly-"

"I am, what some would consider, pretty." she announced it rather than asked.

What most of the male population would consider drop dead gorgeous. Those feline eyes, that pouty mouth, the accent. Tommy had had some very naughty visions about her and he dared anyone to tell him they wouldn't. "Yes..."

"But I am not just a pretty girl. I am not a stuck up pretty girl who got to where I am because of my looks. I worked hard to get where I am. I worked hard to prove that I could get to where I needed to be on my own merits and not because someone else decided to help me because of how I looked." she took a breath clearly getting riled up.

Tommy couldn't believe what he was hearing. He held up a hand, "Wait a minute," he fought a dazed smile, "are you telling me that you hate being beautiful?"

Who hated being beautiful? Girls all over the world wished they were beautiful and here was someone who had been gifted with it and she didn't want it? For the hundredth time in his life Tommy thought to himself ' _Women!'_ with frustration.

She wouldn't look at him but she nodded. Her phone chimed in the background. She ignored it. He had all of her attention now.

Eventually he said, "I have never in my life known someone to be troubled by that."

Eva tipped her chin up in defiance. He could see a spark of challenge in them. "How many times have you dismissed a woman because of how she looks. Ugly or beautiful? Have you ever held the door for a beautiful woman but forgotten to for a not so attractive woman? Have you ever looked at a powerful woman and thought that she got to where she is because of how she looked? When I was training people thought I was an airhead. I was in danger of being dismissed as nothing more than a spoilt little Mafia princess who would drop her pants to get what she wanted. Forced to play honey trap characters on cases. Never taken seriously. Men told me pretty girls didn't play cops and robbers, they weren't smart enough and there was only so far my looks would get me."

Tommy blinked at her flabbergasted.

"And then you call me pretty and all I can think is that's all you see."

Tommy took a deep breath now he understood. "Are you seriously telling me being beautiful is a problem?"

"I told you you wouldn't understand." she scowled prettily. Everything she did was pretty which was the problem.

"I do not understand but what I do know is that anyone who thought of you as nothing more than a pretty face is an idiot." perhaps the conviction in his tone surprised her because she opened her mouth into a perfect o and blinked at him in surprise. He cocked his head, "You're a good agent, hell you're great and it has nothing to do with how you look but who you are. Eva you are the most intelligent, kind hearted person I have ever met. Yes you're beautiful but that's no' why I like ya. It's a bonus sure," he ignored her eye roll, "but it's because of who you are and what you do that makes me want to kiss you."

Eva blushed harder her cheeks colouring. He had no idea how she could think of herself the same way the people she loathed did. She said she despised how no one could see beneath her skin but she also let her surface layer get in her way.

"You do?" she mumbled.

"Oh aye." he grinned what he hoped was dashingly. McConnel rose crossed to her desk and reached his hand out tentatively for hers.

Eva slid her hand into his and letting him guide her to standing. He pulled her body to his, their chests flush with one another. She could feel the heat of him through his thick knit jumper, could feel how firm he was.

"Face it Eva," Tommy said matter of factly, "you're a natural. So if it's okay with you I'm going to kiss you right here," he pressed a finger gently on her plump lips feeling her smile beneath his skin, "and it's not because of how you look but because of how you made me feel two nights ago. Of how you make me feel right now."

"Oh yeah? And how is that?" she asked sassily.

"Like I'm going to really regret not showing you before it's too late."

Her boldness ended then and she tilted her face away. "You're just trying to charm me."

"Believe me I haven't even started with the charming yet. There will be much less clothing when that time comes." He said lewdly.

"You're very confident." She let him guide her arms around his shoulders.

Tommy smiled at her bringing his lips close but not quite touching hers. "I am." he whispered before kissing her.


End file.
